The present invention relates to a heat transfer media suitable for transferring images printed using any ink jet printer to a wide range of materials, including but not limited to pliable materials including cloth and fabric, and rigid materials including ceramic, wood, and heat resistant plastic among many other options.
Much effort has been put forth to allow home users to produce for example, but not limited to custom t-shirts, mouse pads, craft items, and flags. Though the original heat transfer concept using screen printed images has existed for over 30 years, only recently has the proliferation of home computers along with readily available and affordable color ink jet printers allowed home users to make image transfers at home.
The use of heat transfer materials is not restricted to home users. Many small commercial shops can use such materials to generate custom printed shirts, mouse pads, hats, and mugs among many other options. Currently available products lack good ink jet print quality because the image either takes a long time to dry which makes the image susceptible to smearing, or has poorly defined clarity and resolution due to ink wicking and bleeding; do not have good washability because the image fades or cracks after just a few washing and drying cycles in residential washing equipment; tends to yellow either when the image is transferred or over time, which reduces the aesthetic desirability, or does not offer sufficient abrasion resistance when the image is transferred to rigid materials including ceramic mugs. Additionally, the separation of the substrate layer from the transferred object for many products must be done while the image is still hot. This can be difficult for home users to do consistently without either burning their fingers or damaging the transferred image.